Collector System

Drag and Drop for Simplicity

Problem

Currently, the collector system data is in an excel spreadsheet. The collector system for wind farms has been the most error-prone data received by our company

The errors coming from the collector system account for up to 50% of all errors in the data collected by our company for new wind farms.

Make a Plan to do better!

How might we make capturing the collector system data easier for the end-user

  • I built a statement starter
  • Interviewed users who enter collector systems on the current spreadsheet
  • Prototyped in wireframe solutions

Existing Spreadsheet

User Interviews Revealed

  • Users didn't attempt to get the data right. It is easier to wait for our company to tell them the answers
  • Users felt getting the to and from data between windmills correct was impossible
  • Users had this data from other sources and were angry about having to reinput it for our company
Form Multiple Columns

"I don't understand why I have to re-enter my collector system!"

~External User

Prototype Exploration

Once I understood the user's concerns and issues, I put together a few options on how the interaction could work

I came up with two solutions

  • The user can upload their data from an existing format like CAD
  • The user can visually build their collector system online

Start by Selecting a Task

The visual solution form beings with setting the users goal, for the session, by selecting a task

Select a collector system task

Define Circuits

The user can provide the number of circuits in their collector system design for their farm. The circuit data will allow the system to pre-load the next page. Circuits are the rows of windmills on a wind farm.

Enter wind farm circuits

How many Windmills

Next, the user can input how many windmills are on circuit one. For the most part, circuits are numbers sequentially from one to x. The second piece of data I need to collect is the number of junction boxes. Junction boxes are not often sequential, so I will allow them to type in the names of their Junction boxes.

Enter wind mills and Junction boxes

Drag and Drop

The user drags and drops their windmills and Junction boxes to match their collector system design.

Enter wind mills and Junction boxes

Add Cable and Feet

Adding the cable, and the feet between windmills, this was the to and from on the original spreadsheet.

Enter cable and ft

So Far, So Good

I am still waiting for the build of this product in 2020. Paper usability testing has gone well. The upload of the user's existing data is proving to be quite challenging. There are too many software vendors, all with different types of file outputs for the collectors' systems. I'm currently looking at the major vendors and a conversion to a standard upload template for my users.